Ohio State’s University Senate anticipates confirming a resolution to move from quarters to semesters in Summer 2012, officials said at the group’s meeting last Thursday.
The announcement came after the Faculty Council gave overwhelming support for the change, said Christian Zacher, secretary of the University Senate.
University officials approved last year a resolution to launch the semester system no earlier than Autumn Quarter 2012, but officials realized soon after that a scheduling conflict made that impractical.
If the Summer 2012 term remained on the quarter system, officials explained, it would overlap into the following Autumn Quarter because summer quarters are three weeks longer than summer semesters.
Beginning the transition one quarter earlier “makes a lot more sense,” said Terry Gustafson, executive associate dean of the College of the Arts and Sciences, in a previous interview with The Lantern.
At the meeting last week, Provost Joseph Alutto said the semester change will be a “major change in the way OSU organizes itself,” and that faculty and administrators are working to “refresh and reinvent the core curriculum.” He also acknowledged “how very hard our faculty and college are working” on the semester switch
process.
In his annual State of Academic Affairs address to the Senate, Alutto laid out OSU’s focuses for the next five to 10 years: the merging of the Arts and Sciences colleges into one college, the switch from quarters to semesters and the “one OSU” framework for the university.
Describing his vision of this new framework — a “dynamic, integrated campus” — Alutto said the university is considering the “quality of existing academic space.” He also described new development opportunities along the Olentangy River that could “enhance the potential for interdisciplinary research.”
The Committee for Academic Affairs made several proposals at the Senate meeting last week. The committee proposed to merge the three graduate programs in the College of Veterinary Medicine — Veterinary Biosciences, Veterinary Clinical Sciences and Veterinary Preventative Medicine — into one graduate program. The Senate passed the proposal.
The committee also proposed to add a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Sciences, which was passed by the Senate.
